https://www.chicagobusiness.com/greg-hin...on-blasts-mayor-lightfoot-administration
Greg Hinz On Politics
October 18, 2021 02:00 PM |
City inspector blasts Lightfoot administration on his way out the door
Joe Ferguson has a warning for Chicago as he retires from 12 years as City Hall's top watchdog: The Lightfoot administration is incompetent, we're at an inflection point on crime and voters are too complacent. “We don’t have checks and balances in Chicago."
Chicago is at “an inflection point,” burdened with a government that is “broken,” a mayoral administration that “lacks competencies” and an electorate that accepts too much misconduct.
That’s the word from just-retired Chicago Inspector General Joe Ferguson in a candid, no-holds-barred interview in which he said he will not run for mayor or other office but will be a “resource” for those who do.
In a phone conversation on the first workday in 12 years in which he has not been the city’s top internal watchdog, Ferguson mixed some philosophizing about why Chicago always seems trapped in yet another political scandal with harsh words about the performance of Mayor Lori Lightfoot...
Ferguson only occasionally mentioned Lightfoot by name, more often referring to “the administration” and sometimes extending his criticism to the City Council.
But he made it totally clear that he believes the city now is on the wrong path, despite his efforts to rein in corruption and instill good, efficient government practices.
“We don’t have checks and balances in Chicago. We don’t,” Ferguson said. ...
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“At times, I’ve felt like a useful idiot,” said Ferguson, a 61-year-old former federal prosecutor. “We can’t make changes. We can only make recommendations.”
“We need a reset on our government. Our government is broken, in some ways,” he continued.
Ferguson suggested he would have been willing to sign up for another term as inspector general, but Lightfoot made it clear “I was not going to be asked to stay.” In fact, the two rarely spoke, Ferguson said. He and former Mayor Rahm Emanuel “had some major disputes,” but always would sit down afterward and talk.
But he and Lightfoot have not spoken for two years. “I have no idea (why).”
Nor does he know why Lightfoot didn’t have a permanent inspector general ready to go, given that he gave notice 100 days ago. (Lightfoot last week did name one of Ferguson’s deputies, William Marback, as interim inspector general.)
Ferguson termed that
“an example of really poor governance and administration...The competencies simply aren’t there in this administration.”
A Lightfoot spokesman declined to comment for now.
The Chicago lawyer said he’s particularly concerned about the city’s crime problem.
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We are not doing well on the police front. Everyone knows it,” he said. “We are at an inflection point.”
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“Even in the best of times, big cities operate at the edge,” he wrote. “And once in a generation, there are challenges that for some cities take on existential dimensions; at each such juncture, some slip into decline. Chicago has not tipped that way, but we should not blink (at) the fact that it could, for our city is at one of these generational crossroads.”
Remedying the city’s woes ultimately will take an awakened electorate, Ferguson said. “We don’t have that (now).”
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He won’t run for mayor or other office, he said. But that doesn’t mean he won’t be available in other ways.
“I know a lot. I love this city and I’m worried about it,” he said. “I’ll be a resource” to those who do run.
4:40 P.M. UPDATE: Later today, the mayor was asked about Ferguson's comments at a news conference.
Lightfoot jokingly put her hand up to her ear and said, "Who was that? Who?"
Only four days ago, Lightfoot wrote an op-ed thanking Ferguson for his tenure, saying he helped pave "the way to a brighter, more transparent future for our city and residents."
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